Word: laned
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...found, however, are solid black, while the hornets are building their nests close to the ground, and the spiders are sticking together, weaving their webs nearly on top of one another. Taken together, these and other signs mean the coming winter "is going to be a humdinger," says Helen Lane, who is famous in these parts of Tennessee for predicting the weather through nature's clues...
...Lane's father taught her the nature lore, pointing out signs to the youngest of his seven children on the family farm where Lane still lives. Now Lane, 78 and frail with cancer, is passing on the knowledge to her daughter. This fall, while Lane monitored the foliage on Crab Orchard and Renegade mountains from her living-room window, Melinda Lane Hedgecoth ventured into the woods for her, reporting on how thick the fogs were, counting spider webs and spying on the hornets. She also wrote for her mother the annual fall column that Lane has written for the Crossville...
...Lane, reading signs is common sense. Thicker than normal fur on wild animals is a dead giveaway that cold weather is coming. Rings around the moon mean rain or snow is on the way soon. "Nature has a way of taking care of her own," says Lane. "If you pay attention, then you know what you need...
...called woolly bears--and you can determine the winter's snowfall; the more solid-black worms, the more snow; the more solid-brown worms, the less snow. But if more worms are black on the ends and brown in the middle, that means winter will "start and end hard," Lane says, while brown ends and a black middle mean a mild fall and early spring but a harsh midwinter. Each fog forming in August foretells a measurable snowfall. Thick corn shucks also mean a cold winter. The last three days of January portend weather for the next three months...
...Some of Lane's signs have a sound scientific basis. Rings around the moon, for example, are usually caused by thin layers of cirrostratus clouds, which often precede storm fronts. But biologists scoff at the notion that the color of caterpillars (which merely signify different species) or where hornets' nests are can tell you anything about the weather. "It's not that we don't take her seriously," says Mike Murphy of the National Weather Service in Nashville. "It's just not the way we approach the science...